Dems hope Mexico border race will ease tensions

As Donald Trump and other members of the GOP presidential field call for locking down the Mexican border, on Saturday more than 900 American and Mexican runners raced back and forth across it.

The runners all made their crossings with valid passports, and race organizers, along with Obama administration officials and Democratic lawmakers in attendance, hoped the event would highlight the value of cross-border trade and the need for strong business ties between the two nations.

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“For us, it’s less of a discussion about border security, which seems to take up all the oxygen in the media, and more about international trade and travel,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said in an interview.

For the first time since before 9/11, El Paso and Ciudad Juarez hosted a race where passports were perhaps as important as staying hydrated. The finish line was purposely located at the Paso Del Norte Bridge, a border crossing, and runners stood in line with other travelers to have their documentation checked by Customs and Border Protection officials.

The race capped an annual pro-business conference that for the first time this year was split between El Paso and Juarez. In addition to Kerlikowske, the Commerce secretary also spoke at the conference for the first time in its existence.

While Republicans hammer the border region for being lawless and dangerous, several Democrats are hoping to shift the discussion away from security issues.

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker echoed that message and touted the Obama administration’s work to make it easier for businesses to bring goods across the border by truck, train and plane.

“For far too long the common narrative about the relationship between the United States and Mexico has been about security,” she said at a news conference on Friday. As for the Republican emphasis on border dangers, “I don’t think that’s the reality,” she said.

While immigration is already a divisive issue for voters, the balance between security and commerce promises to be fodder for the 2016 elections.

Trump has soared in popularity thanks in part to his blunt, and sometimes caustic remarks about immigration and what he describes as a porous border situation that allows criminals and “rapists” to enter the United States illegally.

Moderate voices in the GOP have also raised concerns. Last month, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who is up for reelection in 2016, held Judiciary Committee hearings focused on the issue of “sanctuary cities,” the roughly 200 local governments that refuse to comply with federal immigration orders. The issue surged into the news after an undocumented immigrant allegedly killed a woman in San Francisco, which is a sanctuary city.

Moreover, lawmakers in both parties, as well as the Mexican government, are acutely aware of the intense violence that has wracked parts of Mexico. From 2006 through 2015, more than 80,000 organized crime-related killings have taken place in Mexico, a July Congressional Research Service report said.

Though cartel killings have ebbed recently, Juarez remains one of Mexico’s homicide hot spots. “A complete recovery remains distant, as government sources reported as many as 10 murders a week during early 2014,” CRS said.

Saturday’s early-morning race was an attempt to build another narrative and highlight what Democrats want for the border. For about three miles in Juarez, runners passed startled pedestrians. Local police directed the racers through traffic.

Chris Rowley, who owns two El Paso running stores and helped organize the race’s logistics, said more than 900 runners participated, included more than 100 Mexicans. He applauded Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) for cutting through red tape to restart the race.

“Beto was probably the instigator of the whole thing,” Rowley said. “He’s a runner. He was looking for something else to add to the conference to take it away from politics.”

Since he joined Congress in 2013, O’Rourke, 42, has helped run the annual U.S.-Mexico summit.

“This conference is a chance for us to discuss big opportunities facing the U.S.-Mexico relationship,” Pritzker said. “I am grateful to Congressman O’Rourke for his leadership on these issues.”

El Paso’s local businesses stand to benefit from attention to the conference. It also gave O’Rourke an opportunity to rub shoulders with campaign contributors. The executive chairman of Hunt Cos., an El Paso-based real estate development firm, also spoke at the conference. O’Rourke’s biggest campaign contributions in 2014 were affiliated with Hunt, federal election filings show.

At Saturday’s race, O’Rourke took a swing at Trump by wearing a baseball cap that read ‘The Border Makes America Great.”

Trump, when he visited Loredo, Texas, last month, wore a hat that read “Make America Great Again.”

“America has always been great, and part of what has made it great is communities like El Paso and the border and everything that we’re seeing today,” O’Rourke said at the finish line. “The story of the border is a much more positive one, but me saying it doesn’t mean anything. People coming to El Paso and Juarez to run this race, and seeing it for themselves is worth more than anything I could ever say.”